Tue, 09 February 2010
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ケーブル, PS2アダプター, HDD, コントローラ, Wii
Project TRU LO REZ is still in progress. Although the majority of the stuff has arrived, I can't put it into action just yet. It's actually kind of funny how the necessities are coming last, like the a 220v power supply for the Wii, so I can't actually use any of this stuff just yet. Here's what I've received so far:
Black Wii from HMV, which I'm sure looks great but I haven't opened it just yet. Not much point, considering I can't use it without a 220v power supply. I have one of those on order too, but they're coming from the freaking UK. It was actually fairly difficult to find official 220v adapters for sale, though 110v ones seem to be officially distributed (they're on Play-Asia if you're after one). And there are a LOT of fakes out there. I mean, why would they sell 110v ones and yet, not the 220v adapters?
Anyway, I never in my life thought that I would end up buying a Wii again. This is my third time buying a Wii. First was at the PAL launch, which was.. fun for about a whole week or so, then the novelty wore off. Next I actually managed to get a really good deal on an American Wii; at that time I learned of the US release of No More Heroes being uncensored, and it came with 12 VC games plus a bunch of other stuff for under $300 USD. The console was actually in pretty bad shape and I barely played it, so I had to get rid of it.
It's more or less going to be used for older games. I've been wanting to play some N64 stuff again too, like Mischief Makers.
Official Wii component cables in a box the size of Russia, which also came from HMV. I'm going to have to mix up my inputs and change PS2 to SCART and Wii to RGB in order for this to work. Actually the XRGB2+ doesn't come with component, but D-Terminal. I'm just going to end up using an adapter to D-Terminal for that though.
The SNES controller isn't actually new. I've had it for over a year now, but haven't had a Wii to use it with. It's a Club Nintendo item and I don't know for sure but, I'm guessing that it's fairly rare now. It plugs into the Wiimote for VC games and other kinds of things. I'd rather use a Saturn pad if given the choice, but for RPGs and SNES games, this is going to fill the gap.
The PS2 adapter arrived today, actually. I had to source one from ebay (unfortunately) since nobody locally was selling any and since they're long out of stock. My main goal here is to install my entire PS2 library on a single HDD.
So, I went ahead and burned a copy of HDAdvance after installing the HDD into my PS2, and it wouldn't detect the drive. I thought okay, yeah, it's probably the loader's fault. Someone suggested that I use a different loader (HDLoader 0.8c), since they're meant to instantly detect HDDs and format them. So I ended up downloading and burning another, only for it to give me the exact same error.
The HDD isn't set to "master mode" so the loader isn't recognizing it in the PS2. It didn't come with a jumper shunt, so I'll now have to go out and buy some of those. Ugh. I'm hoping it'll work after that, since people have reported difficulties with this HDD for PS2s. It claimed to be comptible with PS2s but out of the box, it really wasn't, so I ended up getting a partial refund from the seller. Whatever. He couldn't provide jumper shunts so I think this was the best solution.
I also think this is pretty hilarious, this is the box that the PS2 adapter arrived in:
That's basically ebay quality for you, slap the item inside an old pasta box and send it internationally. I'm actually pretty lucky it arrived, since it had no tracking and no signature required. For the $11 USD in shipping I paid, the seller could have sent it by USPS International Priority which would have included tracking. Oh well.
Up next is to get some jumper shunts and if everything goes according to plan, start the long process of installing all my PS2 stuff to HDD. I'll work on the Wii afterwards.
Thu, 27 August 2009
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Before I forget, I must recommend this. It's a lagless PS2 -> 360 converter which I bought off "Laugh" from SRK for $30 ($7 was in shipping). I've been testing it with a PS2 Saturn controller and it hasn't dropped any inputs, nor has it any noticeable lag. I've tested it with the following games:
Bomberman Live, Outrun, Death Smiles, Daioujou BLEX, Otomedius, Rez HD and Castlevania: SOTN.
In comparison to the XFPS which has absurd lag and also sells for about four times the price this thing is totally worth buying. I don't intend on testing it with anything but a PS2 Saturn pad, as it's pretty much my preferred pad above all, but it'll probably have the same effect on other PS2 supported controllers too.
Initially I was really skeptical because the XFPS was crap and the Fightpad was the only worthwhile/half decent thing on the market for the 360 with a decent dpad. But yeah, it's good. The only issues I've noticed is that you can't configure the buttons, so games like R-Type Dimensions which have preset buttons/can't let you configure them will force you to use certain buttons for certain things. Games like Otomedius/Death Smiles which let you configure the buttons are no problem though. It also requires a wired 360 controller, which has to be plugged into it prior to connecting the adapter to the 360 itself. After it's on, you can take it out or just leave it in all the time. The wired 360 pad isn't usable at the same time.
I've written more about it here.
Fri, 10 July 2009
Ah yes. Nothing like writing a page-long entry and then having Firefox crash on you. Well, let's try again.
I need to kill three hours until 10 PM JST (Japan Standard Time), when AkihabaraShop.jp opens. For those unaware, it's a shop which sells arcade parts; sticks, balltops, buttons, that sort of thing. They're pretty popular, and their shop has been closing more and more frequently after the (hype) release of SF4. I've also ordered this:
I saw this on Yahoo! Japan and jumped at it. It's just the faceplate of the Death Smiles HRAP without the frame or backing, or wiring for that matter. Since the stick was fairly limited to Amazon.jp buyers, and Amazon.jp buyers only in Japan, at that, I didn't bother at the time, mostly because it was Sanwa/Hori, and because I didn't have anyone in Japan willing to purchase one. The stick itself is Sanwa and the buttons are Hori, but all that's all coming out. I intend on replacing my current HRAP's faceplate with it, since my current one is fairly scratched, and has bubbles. That's what I get for buying it used.
My current HRAP is a full Seimitsu stick, but it's certainly no eye candy. It's just a standard, modded HRAP. I never intended it on being eye candy either, but my Death Smiles Agetec only has 3 buttons, which seriously limits me in what I can use it with. I can't even play ver1.1 of Death Smiles with it.
I'm going to order some violet buttons and balltop from AkihabaraShop.jp to match the theme of the faceplate. I'm basically copying this one which I saw a few months ago, except mine will be PS2, not 360. I don't really have a use for a 360 stick at the moment, and of course, PS1/PS2/PS3/Supergun beats out 360/PC in accessibility. I'll probably just mod a SF4 SE after Ketsui or Futari get ported.
But Futari probably won't get ported until 2010, and Ketsui's current port status is a huge mess. Honestly, I'd be pretty surprised if we see the port in 2009 at all. And of course, PCB owners are bragging about it, non-PCB owners are annoyed, and Ketsui itself still sits as the most overrated Cave title in history. I've owned and 1cc'd Ketsui, and it's a great game, sure. That doesn't stop people fumbling over it like all other shooting games released are somehow irrelevant or unworthy of the glory which is Ketsui, which is ridiculous.
All of this could have been avoided if Cave themselves simply took Ketsui under their wing, instead of having some garbage eroge company take it up for them. With no history. And no experience.
Well, still.. two hours left to kill. I might go and play Bomberman Live for awhile.
Wed, 08 July 2009
It's fairly disappointing, but I pretty much expected this result.
I bought one of these off eBay a week ago, after hearing that they're mechanical, and have a clickyness like arcade sticks. Since I still enjoy using pads, I thought "hey, why not" and ordered one. It arrived today, and I tested it out with Batsugun.
Everything about it feels fine, except for diagonals, which I cannot do worth a damn. If you press left or right, then quickly press down right or down left, it won't change inputs. It'll still input your first direction, and unless you center the stick and move diagonally, the chances of diagonally pressing down + right are lower. That isn't to say that it isn't possible to transition from right to down-right, but the orientation of the pad makes doing so a chore. This is extremely annoying, especially in shmups, as I like to move around a lot. I know there's people out there that stay at the bottom of the screen and only move left and right, but I'm not one of them. This pad would be fine if I were.
One of my friends has said that these things need breaking in, and that I just need to give it some time. Honestly, I don't really have "some time" to break another pad in. I've been using Saturn pads for a very, very long time. I have two PS2 Saturn pads (one for my AV7000, and another for my PS2), which I'm accustomed to. They're nice. I don't think I could ever rate another controller above them.
My original inspiration for using Saturn pads came from MrMonkeyMan, a Ketsui player in Canada. He doesn't use sticks (to my knowledge), only Saturn pads. And he's good at it too, which made me think that I could continue to use pads as long as I wanted because it's possible to reach the level of a stick user with them. It's possible, and I'm not going to rule it out, but I want to learn how to play with sticks. It's killing me here.
Seriously. It's eating away at me, and has been for awhile now. I have both my Death Smiles stick which I spoke of in another entry, and a HRAP which I haven't mentioned, but plan on doing so in my next entry. The NeoGeo Pad 2 cost me $43.99 USD including EMS shipping from Japan. I'd say it was really cheap, in comparison PS2 Saturn controllers, which have been selling on Yahoo! Japan and eBay for up to, and over $150 USD each. I get the feeling that, much like HRAPs, they're starting to sell on reputation, instead of just name alone.
